Tourism industry in the economically developed and developing countries: comparative analysis of the growth features

The article presents a multidimensional comparative analysis of the growth features of tourism and hospitality industry in the economically developed and developing countries at the current stage of the industry development. The author compares two groups of countries by the thirteen main criteria, which together show that both groups of coun- tries have stable and specific trends in the organization and the econ- omy of the tourism sector. The greatest differences between the desig- nated groups of countries are observed by following criteria: inter- regional and intra-regional balance in tourism development, its species diversity, technology and innovation of the tourism and hospitality industry, features of multiplicative effects and structural leaks in the sector, as well as the variety of applied marketing tools and approach- es to the creating artificial attractiveness. The comparison of two groups of countries by the degree of service orientation of tourism and hospitality, as well as by the development of a critical sub-sector such as consulting, which is an important factor in improving productivity and efficiency, is also interesting. It is notably and very important that research and analytical reports, including WEF Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2015, rarely discuss and analyze many of the features considered by the author. The article attempts to conduct generalized correlation of the two groups of countries, but there is undeniable need for more detailed comparisons by each of the identi- fied criteria. This work is only an introductory attempt of general con- ceptualizing the phenomenon of the tourism and services industry spe- cifics in both developed and developing countries, due to the total ab- sence of such studies in the domestic tourism science. The correlation of characteristics of the tourism and hospitality industry in Russia and its intended development path with both groups of countries is of par- ticular interest for further research. This will contribute to better un- derstanding of position of the domestic industry in the global coordi- nate system.